BUILD Replacing Current File Server

[TorturdChaos]

I'm working one replacing our file server at work. The one we currently have is about 10 years old and showing it sage.
So I'm thinking new server time. The server will be for a copy shop, that specializes in house plans and construction plans. We store lots of large pdf and tiff files. Also have a full service sign shop, so lots of Illustrator and Photoshop files - may of the raster graphics are quite large. (4ft x 8ft sign @ 600dpi takes up a lot of space).
The server will need to connect to 6-8 computers at any one time, with upto 6 printers & copiers active on the network at any one time.
Everything is plugged into a Linksys SRW248G4 v1.1 Switch, with the server going into one of the gigabit ports.
90% of the files we work with are storage on the file server - form house plans, to large commercial building plans to customer artwork and designs for both small format printing and large format. They are loaded, modified, saved, and printed while on the server. I strongly discourage anyone storing files locally as there are no backups on the individual computers, only on the file server. (Both local and through Crashplan).
Anyways onto the hardware:
I already have the process from another project that didn't pan out:
Intel Xeon E3-1240 V2 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz
Mobo
SUPERMICRO MBD-X9SCL-F-O
Case
Fractal Design Define R4
PSU
Thermaltake Toughpower Grand TPG-850M 850W ATX
Ram
Kingston 16GB (2 x 8GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 Server Memory Model KVR1333D3E9SK2/16G
HDD's
Seagate NAS HDD ST2000VN000 2TB x4
I plan to put the HDD into a Raid-Z2, which should give me about 3.6TB of space.
I have built several gaming computers and graphic design computers before but never a server. I think I have a fairly good built here, but would certainly welcome input from someone with more experience in this area than me.

 

[indy]

I am currently building a Freenas box myself.
Some ideas regarding your build listed below, take them with a grain of salt though ;)

General:
- Haswell costs about the same, has a higher efficiency
- 7 disk raidz3 for higher performance and redundancy

MB: X10SL7-F
- good onboard sas/sata controller with little added cost
- IPMI
CPU: E3-1220 v3
- cheaper
- more than enough power for file-serving
RAM:
- I would prefer 1600mhz and low voltage but it should make little difference
HDD: WD Se
- 7200rpm
- Seagate did not perform well in the Backblaze statistics, take it or leave it...
PSU: Seasonic G-360
- higher efficiency at typical load
CASE:
- same one I got, very solid, great build quality

Almost forgot, a UPS is a good idea.

 

[TorturdChaos]

I already have the CPU, so that's why I'm using that one and not Haswell. If I didn't have a CPU already I would defiantly get a Haswell one.

As for the 7 disk raidz3, will goin up in raidz levels negativly affect the read/write performance?

MD: I want to stick with that CPU, so I need a LGA 1155 socket Mobo. But it does look like that one comes with:

Integrated IPMI 2.0 with KVM and Dedicated LAN

HDD: I forgot that about that report Backblaze had released. Thanks for bring that up.
So switching HDD to: Western Digital WD SE WD2000F9YZ 2TB

PSU: TBH I grabbed the first one off the list one newegg :P. Thanks for the recommendation.
SeaSonic SSR-360GP 360W
Will that have enough power to deal with all the hdd spinning up?

And I already have a UPS, but thx.

 

[indy]

4x 5400rpm raidz2 should be handily outperformed by 7x 7200rpm raidz3.
It should roughly double your continuous reads / writes and have slightly higher IOPS due to the higher rpm.
As long as the controller can handle it anyway.
https://blogs.oracle.com/roch/entry/when_to_and_not_to
https://calomel.org/zfs_raid_speed_capacity.html

Did not read you post well enough apparently regarding the cpu/mb ;)

For a rough estimation of the necessary psu wattage you can assume 2A starting current for each hard drive.
If you want to be sure you can always look up the specification.
The Seasonic should have roughly 100W as safety margin with the 7 drive configuration.
There are also some recent threads in the forum on that topic.

 

[TorturdChaos]

What about a 5 disc raidz3? Mobo only has 6 data ports.

 

[Lordadmiral Drake]

Wouldn't a 5 disk raidZ3 be a terrible waste of space?

 

[jgreco]

Why would it be a terrible waste of space?

Different people have different tolerance levels for data loss.

 

[Dennis.kulmosen]

My 2 cent on this is go for 3 pairs of mirror.
This way you will have 3 disk redundancy and lots of performance. Take a look at constantins blog about zfs those articles are still relevant.

 

[TorturdChaos]

But with 3 pairs of mirrors if a pair mirrors fail I loose that data. With raidz3 ANY 3 disc can fail and I still have the data. Yes I have backups because I know no raid setup is completely 100% proof to data loss, but it takes time to recover from backups. Going from a 4 disc raidz2 to a 5 disc raidz3 gives me the same amount of storage space, but I get an extra layer of protection. I'm thinking I will go with the 5 disc raisZ3 so I don't have to buy a SATA card.

 

[jgreco]

Yes, that's correct. It isn't "wasted space" the instant it covers your butt.